Showing posts with label Red-Letter. Show all posts

Red Letter Christians. Emergents. New Evangelicals.

Posted on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 by Jim Leave a comment

Looking south from Top of the Rock, New York CityImage via WikipediaThis is from Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's America's Next Revival:

Arising out of different church communities, these Red Letter Christians are variously labeled as 'progressives,' 'Emergents,' 'new evangelicals' and 'new monastics.' Though we don't agree on everything, we all have this in common: we feel deep in our bones the need for the hope of the gospel to connect with the material needs of our world today.


This will be the hallmark of America's next revival: an embodied faith that makes the connections between conviction and practice, between Spirit and flesh, between the world that is and the world that ought to be. Something is stirring in a dozen different movements today to teach God's people to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This one thing is more important than any of the smaller movements we are part of.
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Running to Paul When Jesus Gets Uncomfortable

Posted on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 by Jim Leave a comment

The canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke &...Image via Wikipedia

Was reading the comments section at a blog where the discussion was about social programs and charity where a person argued that Paul said we shouldn't give to a person who's just being lazy.  While "God helps those who help themselves" is really a Ben Franklin quote, you can find is alluded to in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12:

"Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you. And we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were here with you, we gave you this command, anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living." (RSV)

Here, it seems, there were folks who were living off of the church as they expected Christ to come back at any time.  There is a specific context.  And, yes, when taken out of that context it makes me uncomfortable...it seems to say that charity just for those who really need it.

But in the comments section came the following comment from someone named Leanne.  It's a great message for all who would look to Paul (or other parts of Scripture) when the Gospel passages get difficult.

We often run to Paul and to other Scriptures outside the Gospel to justify our dicomfort. But truth is, Christ called us to die, to pick up our cross. This is not a religion about what works economically. It is a belief system about God giving everything for Creation and inviting us to do the same.

...we shouldn’t run to Paul to explain Christ. We should run to Christ to explain Paul. As Bishop N.T.Wright states, read Paul first and the Gospels second, you’ll get Paul all wrong. Read Gospels first and Paul second, you’ll understand Paul in a whole new way.

I searched through a lot of N.T. Wright's stuff to find an exact quote for the above comment but couldn't find one.  If one can offer it, I'd be appreciative.




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Four Things

Posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 by Jim Leave a comment

I have four concepts that are swimming around in my head that are clearly coming out in this blog.  I have appropriate links to help you understand.

1)  The Missional Church -- The church exists to be missionaries in the culture of which it's a part.

2)  The Emerging Church -- This is harder to define but is a "deconstructed," post-modern way of looking at church.  It is closely tied with the Missional Church.

3)  Red-Letter Christians -- This is a movement to save the church from both left and right partisan politics by focusing on the words of Jesus (the "red letters") and living according to his words.  It recognizes all of Scripture as inspired but uses the life of Christ as the lens through which the rest of Scripture is viewed.

4)  Servant Evangelism -- The notion that acts of love have a positive change on communities and is what brings persons into a relationship with Christ.

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